Races of The Emerald Serpent #5: The Wizards

As I continue my discussions about the races involved in
Tales of the Emerald Serpent, I can’t help but be drawn to the most powerful of
them all, those of High Water. Tall and
proud, this race is sometimes considered dour, sometimes harsh, and certainly foreboding,
but like the depth of their element, there is more below the surface than can
ever be perceived. They tend toward dark
hair, sometimes touched with green or even more rarely violet, and their eyes
are like polished emeralds. Their skin is pale like a polished cloud
unless they are emotional when violet and blue washes along cheekbones, or sets
into the tips of their fingers.

Power flows through them, not from the water that is inherently
theirs, but instead from the connection that water brings to another plane. For this reason and powerful connection, the
race of High Water are referred to as Wizards.

The Wizards, Beyond the Black Gate, Tales of the Emerald
Serpent.

Wizard… the word in alone holds incredible power to the
imagination, and as I’ve read fantasy novels for the bulk of my life I’ve had
many experiences with this title and its incarnations. To me, as a player of Dungeons & Dragons,
Wizards were about spell books, lightning bolts, an inability to use weapons, and
horrifically low hit points. To me as a
fan of Tolkien, Wizards were beings of incredible power that did little to nothing
with it. And to me as a Robert E. Howard
fan, Wizards were evil men in pyramids who made dark contracts with demons and
hoped to sacrifice beautiful women to dark gods.

There were of course a hundred other feelings and notions I
had toward Wizards, but as I worked on building the Nameless Realms I wanted
something truly different from the bulk of wizardry I’d read. Thus, as I came up with my elemental based
system, I anointed Wizards as a race instead of a profession.

In the world where Taux resides, Wizards are the race of
High Water, their connection to that element allowing them access to a plane of
existence beyond the elemental plane of water I call the Afterglow Sea. This ocean of unrefined energy is the source
of all non-godly magic in the world, and Wizards have spent countless millennia
learning ways to manipulate it.

In terms of the world, Wizards are more artists than
sorcerers, the true power inside them tied to their ability to visualize and ‘paint’
pictures with the Afterglow energy they siphon through the plane of water and
into the mundane world.

Certainly, there is no doubt they are powerful, but to
master what they do takes countless years of exercise and dedication to their
craft. Like a master of oil painting,
there are too few Michelangelos or Da Vincis in the world, and so too is it
with Wizards.

Still, all those of the race wield magic, can do incredible
things with it, and yet it can be dangerous beyond the reckoning of mortal
men. For those who strive for power to quickly, their
path and bodies are often burned up by the overflow of Afterglow they try to
manipulate.

As a race, Wizards seclude themselves from society in an
almost monk-like existence. They are
terribly introspective, and live almost exclusively in a series of Star Towers
that can be found in the heart of the harbors of the world’s most ancient and
populated cities. From these bastions,
the Wizards study the Afterglow while surrounded by their element on all sides.

When seen outside of the Towers, Wizards are known to wear
robes that are always trimmed in runes of gold embroidery. These robes are of three colors, Snow, Ash,
or Ebony, and each signifies the Wizard’s dedication to a particular school of
thought. Snow is bound to warding magic
and the practice of all manner of Afterglow defense and abjuration. Ash is for war, the Wizards dedicated to this
school finding ways to channel Afterglow into its most destructive form. And Ebony dedicates itself to the practice of
mixing Afterglow with the elemental plane of shadow and the necromantic trade.

These are the rudiments of the race of Wizards, and in Tales
of the Emerald Serpent, you will have a chance to discover even more about
them.